The Midnight Library

You know how some books come into your life at the best possible moment? They might not be the best written or win awards or show up on the high school required reading list, but nonetheless it ends up meaning the world to you. The Midnight Library is that book for me. I literally picked it up at the drugstore for a discounted price knowing nothing about it other than the brief description and awesome cover art, and it hit a chord so deep in me that I don't have the words to express how much this book meant to me.
We've all wondered what life would have been like had we made other choices. Would it be better, worse or just different. Nora in this book doesn't just wonder, she has the chance to actually live out some of her regrets and see if those alternate choices would have made her life more worth living, or just happier. The lesson she learns along the way is a poignant one and very worth hearing for those of us who think life would be better if...
Our society is so focused on how to achieve happiness, that we tend to get caught up in the pursuit of it and forget to truly live in the meantime and enjoy those happy moments in between, or accept the inevitable bumps we will hit along the way. And if you suffer from depression it makes you think those bumps are entirely your fault. Matt Haig definitely understands depression and deftly uses the difficult subject to write a surprisingly positive story.
I think this book is a thoughtful, poignant and worthwhile read. It's truly a treasure with a message that will hit you in the feels and make you re-evaluate how you look at your own life.

What if you could go back and change the biggest regret of your life? Or turn left instead of right at a crossroad? Study art instead of science? The Midnight Library allows you to do this. To ‘try on' all the lives you could have lived. What would you choose?

It is such a tantalising premise (and one of my favourite tropes!) as we follow protagonist, Nora, who decides to die and ends up instead at the Midnight Library. It is a whirlwind ride of Groundhog Days and Butterfly Effects, of foreign countries and famous people, of bears, vineyards and rock and roll. But it has such heart, such hope and really is the perfect read for these troubled times.

Highly recommend!

Predictable

Whilst I've come to highly respect Matt Haig and his books, even re-reading The Humans (which is unique for me), as I read this book I started to remember what I wasn't so keen on in his last book - which repeats itself in this.

The book reads like I'm watching a movie. That might be fine for some, but for me I want the written medium to challenge my imagination, not feed me visuals from a film.

The story in general is well written and is respectful of its subject: suicide. I've always been a little wary of female lead characters written by men (I've not had great experiences), but Haig does Nora Seed proud. Nora is a well rounded, messed up, individual and if I didn't have my personal dislikes for some of the story aspects or the method of story telling, I'd say this is a decent book to read on holiday (not that any of us are holidaying during the pandemic times...).

Nora Seed is depressed and lonely, and everything around her has failed in some way, and so she decides she wants to die. In her journey to death, she lands in limo, The Midnight Library, where she can (effectively) try on alternative lives where she had made a different decision and see if she would like to stay and continue that life instead.

The story inevitably leads to the idea of the multiverse but kind of does it in a half cocked way. Since Nora can switch universe and in she decides this isn't the life for her, she reverts back to midnight to reselect. This is also effectively time travel (though the book doesn't acknowledge it). So since she can time travel and jump universe, we're now talking about infinite space and time, which apparently Nora isn't allowed... it just feels a bit... like there's gaping plot holes.

But then after trying all the lives, she finds one that she believes she's happy in (which apparently the absence of anti-depressants is the main requirement) she feels guilt for having taken the place of a Nora mother and happy wife and successful educator. Inevitably she bounces back to The Midnight Library, confused, wanting, when it all comes crumbling down, she realises she wants to live. In the last desperate moments as the Midnight Library comes crashing down, she chooses her own “root life” (which also makes no sense in a multiverse) and chooses to live.

Sadly predicable. Throughout the book I didn't really feel like I was learning anything as Nora went through her journey.

Despite my lack of enjoyment from the book, one message did manage to work it's way through. Nora felt happy (and perhaps content) to know that she was capable of all the “successful” versions of herself. Though she doesn't particularly tread that path, she realises that she could have done and that notion itself is strong enough to dispell a lot (if not all) of her regrets.

beautiful and inspiring. just what i needed at this moment.

There was so much talk and love for this book, I had to read it. Fortunately, the good folks at Two Book Nerds Talking sent their Patreon supporters an ARC copy each, and this winged its way to me.

First off: I am not a fan of fables. I read The Alchemist and few other titles some time back, and found them to be too cryptic as well as contrived to be able to derive much pleasure out of the reading of them.

Fortunately, this book strikes a more grounded note - the lead character, Nora Seed, is at the lowest point of her life, and at the moment when despair overwhelms her, she is transported to a magical library where it is constantly midnight and where the books show her different paths her life could have taken. With the guidance of Mrs Elm, the librarian (who happens to be her grade-school librarian in real life), Nora gets to review her regrets, undo them, and experience how her life Might Have Been if her decisions had been different.

I shall be honest, it took awhile for me to fully settle into this book - the episodes of Nora in the library with Mrs Elm were the ones I was most impatient with. At first. But the story is compelling, telling as it is of a young woman's feelings of failure, loneliness, and abject despair, and the revelations she needed to find out herself to slowly pick her way out of the emotional abyss.

It is also interesting - how many of us often wonder “What If?” - through Nora Seed, we get to explore the consequences of those What Ifs. Yes, they are Nora's but they serve to remind readers as well that each decision has a consequence and what might have seemed like a path in the road leading to much greener grass could very well have been another wrong turn. The book is not all gloom; Nora's various experiences - as a rock star, an Arctic explorer, a Mom, a bar owner, and some other roles in between - have their fun moments, ultimately serving to emphasize the story's central message: that no life is perfect but that's no reason to give up on it.

This is the ideal read if you need a pick me up but dislike non-fiction prescriptive writing, or if you simply need to nestle into a story that you know will ultimately lead you - gently and persuasively - out of the dark and into some sunshine.

this was good, but I have to admit at times it read a little too self help instead of being a genuine experience with Nora and that put me off a bit.

3.5 stars. In my review of Haig's [b:The Humans 16130537 The Humans Matt Haig https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353739654l/16130537.SY75.jpg 21955852] I said it was “simplistic and predictable but undeniably effective.” I could pretty much say the same thing about this book. I knew from the start which life Nora would choose from the myriad ones she sampled, but one or two of them still made me tear up when they were over. Haig's messages about leaving behind regrets for what could have been and choosing to love yourself despite your faults are nothing new, but in this difficult time they're a welcome reminder.

this was beautiful and I am in fact emo

I feel like the way things wrapped up was..a bit too convenient? but this books hits the feelz nevertheless

I mesh with this book on a celluar level.

Loved it just as much the second time around..

This is the kind of book that quietly slips inside of you, simultaneously stealing your heart and warming your soul. Gentle and profound, beautiful, full of despair and hope and brilliance. Absolutely wonderful.

“We only need to be one person. We only need to feel one existence. We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”

Questo romanzo con un espediente narrativo magnifico, la Midnight Library, che è un luogo sospeso in un limbo tra la vita e la morte in cui, un'impersonificazione della volontà di vivere cerca di farti ricordare e capire quanto sia incredibile essere vivi.
L'autore racconta di una vita infelice, tormentata e piena di rimpianti, che con spirito di recitazione, si avventura in tante potenziali vite “what if” in cui le cose sono andate diversamente rispetto alla sua vita “principale”... Non voglio veramente anticipare nulla di quello che è una storia molto semplice, raccontata in una maniera semplice, diretta ed emozionante. Un libro sui rimpianti e sulla vita che mi ha ispirato, pieno di insegnamenti e perle di saggezza da ricordare.
Lo consiglio a tutti coloro che hanno bisogno di un po' di incoraggiamento nella vita, ma anche a chi pensa spesso a come diversamente sarebbero potute andare le cose rimpiangendo le scelte passate.

Nora Seed hates her life. She has no job. She has no friends. Her only family, her brother, is estranged from her. And now even her cat is dead.

Nora decides to die. She takes the tables. She finishes the wine. She falls asleep and...

...she wakes up in the Midnight Library. She's not alive. She's not dead. Her old school librarian (!) is there to help her figure out things, to experience a life without the regrets she has, and all Nora has to do is choose a book and open it and her new, better life will begin....

My favorite book of the year. Probably not the most literary. Probably not the most perfect. But the wisest book I've read this year, a book can't help itself from helping everyone who reads it.

“You don't have to understand life. You just have to live it.”

I feel so at peace after reading this book.
I think I might be a little overwhelmed with feelings now, so a coherent review will follow later.

Matt Haig is so good at writing and describing mental illnesses and mental health. He never fails to touch me with his writing.
The setting of the story also is so magical and so thought-through. Just the concept of this whole book is been written down so well.
This book talks about regrets, grief, love, friendship,... in such a wonderful way. I loved going on this quest with Nora Seed.

This is definitely one of my favorite books of 2020.

I really enjoyed this book, one of Matt Haigs best, I read it during a particularly bad spell of depression and found it encouraging and a good distraction

I loved this book so much that I carried it with me everywhere for 3 days just in case I found a few more minutes to carry on reading.

Another absolute beauty from Matt Haig. I love how he always writes with his main characters voice. He is so skilled, so intuitive.

Nora has taught me a lot of things during her journey. I want everyone to read this book!!